25 January

I never have much enthusiasm for Australia Day. Jingoistic claptrap most of the time. Culture wars about flags and invasions etc. We turn everything into sport. Yes the country was invaded, stolen. Yes many love the flag and fought under it. All true. But it’s just debating points. I deeply love Australia. My thoughts on Australia Day are the same as on every other day. We landed on a continent carrying the most extraordinary mystery in world history. A civilisation that lasted tens of thousands of years, the only one who managed to last indefinitely without killing each other or the landscape they lived in. Nobody is probably left who really knows how it was done. It’s humanity’s greatest and most important mystery story. That may have no ending, because the knowledge will be gone.